Rewind

So I know that I haven't blogged in about 3 months so I have some making up to do. I had a friend kindly remind me of this (Lauren Hunter). Therefore, I need to backtrack....

Thanksgiving:

We were able to travel to St. Louis to be with my family. It was the typical Oberle holiday celebration. We made about 20 pies on Wednesday and prepared for the coming feast. Thursday consisted of cleaning the house in preparation of 35 visitors and building a protection hut for the 8 turkeys soon to be deep fried. This contraption consisted of 2 wooden doors and 4 tarps for 3 sides, the floor, and the roof. Needless to say, the necessary drilling noises, the smell of boiling peanut oil, and the appearance of a refugee camp in our backyard sure gave the neighbors something to talk about. Wish we had a picture to prove it!

Oberle Mystery Readers:

On December 4th, my parents came to my classroom to be our mystery readers for the week. What is most enjoyable about when our guests walk through the door and the kids have no idea who they are is definitely allowing them to guess. They recognized my parents' escort, Mr. Schirmer (remember the skittle incident). However, they proceeded to guess who my dad was. They wondered if he was Mr. Schirmer (the other I guess - I have two?), Ben's dad, or my grandpa. I then had to explain that just because he looks like their grandpa, they have to think about the fact that I am older than them and therefore my grandpa is really old. Good cover up right? I don't know if my dad bought it. 

My mom read the book If You Take A Mouse To The Movies while my dad held the mouse character for the story. It was adorable and they loved it! The book was about if you take a mouse to the movies then he'll want some popcorn and then he'll want something else and so on. Therefore, we had to have a popcorn party!!! I love announcing surprises to my class because when they get really excited, they scream and clap with pure joy as if they have never experienced anything so wonderful before. It makes you feel like Oprah (which I love of course)!

As our popcorn party proceeded, I was on crowd control and just let my parents mingle with my wonderful students. I thought everything was under control until I found out that my dad was playing with 3 of my troublesome boys. He was telling them that if they take the kernels and put them in their pockets then their moms will put them in the washing machine. This will get the kernels really shiny and clean. Then when she places them in the dryer, it will create real popcorn! Needless to say, my boys believed them and I would soon be expecting a few phone calls and possibly bills for new appliances. Oh dad.

Here are a few pictures:

Mom reading and dad enjoying the kids' entertaining reactions and comments.

Christmas:

Since we were in St. Louis for Thanksgiving, we decided to stay in KC for Christmas. We were able to drive into St. Louis the weekend before Christmas for Meximas. This is my mom's family's Christmas celebration. It normally consists of delicious Mexican food, amazing margaritas, and hilarious family stories due to inappropriate comments and actions. Now that Ben's brother Joel is a part of the family, he decided to join. It was not nearly as eventful as the past years. However, it was worth the 8 hours of driving.

We went over to Ben's parents' house on Christmas Eve and planned to be there through Ben's birthday. We had a wonderful steak dinner and enjoyed playing board games with family friends. Christmas Eve service was cancelled due to a winter blizzard. We then woke up on Christmas morning with white snow covering everything you saw outside. It was beautiful. The day consisted of resting, exercising with the Wii, watching about 5 episodes of Glee (I had to catch up since Joel got me the soundtracks), and then ending the day with playing in the snow. My father in law Dave, my husband, my two new brothers, and I played football in the foot and a half of snow for an hour and a half. It reminded me of being a kid again...just playing with the boys. My first married Christmas in Kansas City was a beautiful, white memory that I hope to never forget. 

It was wonderful to be with Ben's family who have treated me like their own since day one. However, it was a little sad to have to break my own family traditions that I have had my entire life. I only cried once though. It was on Christmas Eve thinking about a tradition my dad and I have had since I was a little girl. We always woke up early and went shopping for a gift for my mom. Just he and I. We would then have a lunch date and then go home to wrap the gift specially. It was hard thinking that I wasn't going to be able to do this every year like you just expect to for the rest of your life. And then you get married...and everything changes. It becomes about the two of you (and each of your families) instead of just what you want or what you're used to. Overall, it has been an easy tradition, but the holidays were a little difficult to sacrifice. I'm sure it gets easier as time goes on.

It's Fall!!!

Here we are at Gladfest with some of our friends!

Matt, Lacey, Rachel, Elisha, Reed, Lauren, Me, & Ben.

Look at this happily married couple!

Just the girls.

And then the boys.

Mystery Reader

I am starting this new thing every Friday afternoon. Our kindergarten class will have a "Mystery Reader" come and read one of their favorite childhood books. I give them one clue every day. This week's clues were:

Our Mystery Reader:

1. Likes basketball

2. Loves to learn about social studies

3. Likes the Royals

4. Loves the Chiefs

5. Graduated from Mizzou

The kids had many guesses before our mystery reader came. And then he walked into our classroom. They didn't know who Ben was so they made guesses. For example, my friend and my dad (5 times). They finally figured out that he was THE Mr. Schirmer! Here are some pictures of him reading The Real Story of the Three Little Pigs. They loved it!

This is our skittle celebration because they earned 10 stars in one day! They each got their own bag of skittles and yes one skittle did fall out of a kids mouth and stain Ben's khakis. 

Memories that make us smile.

Our engagement pictures:

Our first picture as an engaged couple.

The surprise breakfast at Ernie's, the place of our very first date!

What's a celebration without kiting?

Announcing our engagement at Theta candlelight.

Amy's College Graduation: (Go Tigers!)

The whole fam damly!

The most wonderful day of our lives...

Just a few pictures from the honeymoon we had always dreamed of. St. Maarten was absolutely beautiful and it couldn't have been a more perfect place for us to celebrate our new marriage!

Prayers for Pat

You never know which way life will take you. You never know what kind of phone call you will receive. And you never know how your life can instantly change. It is amazing to think about how you expect life to go exactly how you expect it to go, yet it never does. 

My dad recently experienced something I had never heard of. It was a essentially a stroke that occurred in his left eye. Due to blood flow to the retina being blocked, his vision was impaired and has not returned. He has gone 2 days without sight in his left eye and its hard to think that it could be permanent. There is no guarantee that he will ever be able to see out of that eye ever again. 

However, despite the medical challenges of his eye healing, we still have hope. We have hope that somehow or someway there will be restoration. Above all else, we are thankful. We are thankful that the blockage did not occur in his brain or important organs. There is an endless amount of situations that could be worse and we can be thankful for that. It is so encouraging to think that God has a purposeful reason for this happening and that He does provide exactly what you need when you need it. 

Please be praying for him if he comes to mind. Pray that God begins to heal him physically and emotionally. His morale is increasing, along with his thankfulness. Thank you for your thoughts, prayers, and encouragement.

The Joys of Teaching Kindergarten!

Teaching can be confusing at times. There are days where you absolutely love teaching and there are days you wonder why you chose to do it. However, the days that you love your students, enjoy watching them learn, and feel like you are actually impacting them are worth every challenge and stress. It is the most demanding job in the world and I don’t think I would want to do anything else. I love it…I love my 5 and 6 year olds and how new the world is to them. I love teaching them how to hold a pencil for the first time, which letter makes which sound, and how to actually use your fingers for counting. It is amazing to think that I’m the one responsible for them knowing all of those things. My teaching is foundational for their entire educational experience. Even though there are deep responsibilities and challenges, God sends me kindergarteners to make me laugh, gross me out, and make me postpone motherhood a few more years. My life is completely different than most because I get to experience something new everyday.

 

I bet you've never:

1. had a booger wiped on your arm

2. heard your name over 100 times in one day

3. had the diamond on your wedding band sucked on by a child

4. tied the same shoelace 9 times in one day

5. heard your name be pronounced Mrs. Shitmer

6. been asked where a baby comes out

 

More kindergarten stories to come…..

Amy  

New to this whole blogging thing.

We've always been against blogging, myspace, and especially twitter, but we're in high demand. We say that jokingly, but in all honesty...friends and family have been asking for wedding pictures, pictures of Amy's Kindergarten classroom, and pictures of our brand new apartment. Rather than sending a million emails on a consistent basis, we figured (well, Amy figured) it would just be easier, more efficient, and even more fun to begin a blog. 

So here we are. Newly married and loving it. New jobs, new schools, and even new lives. It's been obvious that this is where we were supposed to be and that God had a plan all along. Our latest life updates:

1. Amy is teaching Kindergarten at Warren Hills Elementary in Liberty, MO. Her class is absolutely hilarious. Being with 21 five-year-olds for 7 hours a day is exhausting, but very rewarding. She has been blessed with a wonderful class and there's always a story that Ben gets to hear at the end of the day. I'm sure some of those stories will end up on this blog as well.

2. Ben is going back to school. He's studying at Rockhurst to get his certification and masters in education (secondary social studies). He's really enjoying it so far and finds that will be very, very helpful for his future. 

3. We love being married. Its wonderful to not have to drive two hours to see the person you love the most, but its even more wonderful that we come home to each other. We always get to be together! It's like living life with your best friend. This must be exactly how God intended marriage to be...just simply enjoying your favorite person and finding new ways to love each other and God together. 

Well be expecting lots more to come....